Microsoft shuts down several studios, including Tango and Arkane Austin.

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Board 8 » Microsoft shuts down several studios, including Tango and Arkane Austin.
Kenri posted...
Game devs choosing where to launch their new game: Ah yes, Microsoft, a company that has proven trustworthy to work with,
They will sell it to Meta in two years because they couldn't make a profit off it like their streaming service
2 line break(s), 160 characters allowed
Being Microsoft Gaming instead of Xbox is definitely a sign that it's basically over. But not surprising, they were pushing that brand hard because it's more favorable.

Only fortunate part in this is that both Playstation and Xbox are just glorified PCs at this point so literally nothing changes. Looking forward to the Microsoft Surface Deck, i guess?
The King Wang.
Listen up Urinal Cake. I already have something that tells me if I'm too drunk when I pee on it: My friends. - Colbert.
https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1788728698184540355?t=A1-Mu0sIKvrVKa62tn8ONg&s=19

Maybe just don't do interviews right now when everyone hates you if you have absolutely nothing of value to say.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
Kinglicious posted...
Being Microsoft Gaming instead of Xbox is definitely a sign that it's basically over. But not surprising, they were pushing that brand hard because it's more favorable.

Only fortunate part in this is that both Playstation and Xbox are just glorified PCs at this point so literally nothing changes. Looking forward to the Microsoft Surface Deck, i guess?
I've said it before, but the most logical path forward for MS is to make the next Xbox an actual PC in a box that has BC with previous Xboxs. That way no one had to spend time developing games specifically for it.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
Oh Ninja Theory is absolutely fucking doomed.

https://twitter.com/SultanPSN/status/1789968062793314385?t=2FSYRBx-Ny8ZbeBwrrwR6A&s=19
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
What am I looking at there? It's #248 based on what?
"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Steam sales ranking for the day. Which is mostly irrelevant, but hardly a good sign.

UshiromiyaEva posted...
Oh Ninja Theory is absolutely fucking doomed.

https://twitter.com/SultanPSN/status/1789968062793314385?t=2FSYRBx-Ny8ZbeBwrrwR6A&s=19
The question is whether they'll get to port it to PS5 first or not.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
The chart is just a bad look, but the fact that this game is coming out in a week I'm general is fucking insane. 0 marketing budget.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
bigger marketing budget than Hi-Fi Rush a week before launch
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
Hi-Fi Rush was a shadowdrop AA game.

Hellblade II is supposedly a pillar of the Xbox Series that they announced alongside their console 5 years ago.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
It (Hellblade) was at one of those summer showcases and then...haven't heard much about it since?

The first game didn't exactly light the world on fire. It was good but not the type of game I'd expect to breakout in a major way.
"That was unnecessarily dramatic". - NY Mets motto (courtesy of InnerTubeHero)
Congratulations to azuarc, the guru of gurus and winner of GotD 2020!
Hellblade 1 is one of the most niche games I've played in recent memory. There's no way marketing can make that game sell a lot. I'm surprised at how much the original sold, but I wonder how many players actually finished it or played more than a couple hours.
_foolmo_
he says listen to my story this maybe are last chance
Seanchan posted...
It was good but not the type of game I'd expect to breakout in a major way.

Except at one point Microsoft DID expect it to. Do you remember that huge musical presentation at the game awards last year?

It's been radio silence since then other than the announcement that the game was locked at 30.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
UshiromiyaEva posted...
Except at one point Microsoft DID expect it to. Do you remember that huge musical presentation at the game awards last year?

It's been radio silence since then other than the announcement that the game was locked at 30.

Well, as if we didn't already know based on the past few weeks, Microsoft is fucking stupid.

Ninja Theory has never made a true breakout hit. Heavenly Sword and Enslaved are both are on that same level as Hellblade; ambitious and interesting but not system sellers. DmC I've still not played but from what I understand it wasn't loved at launch and has only gotten a reputation over time because it was more underrated than it should have been. Then there's Hellblade 1. (A bunch of smaller stuff too that wouldn't matter to the GFaqs audience.)

Hellblade 2 looks like more Hellblade. It's going to be on Game Pass on day 1, which we know kills sales. It will very likely be a good videogame. But it will not move the needle, and that's all Microsoft cares about at this point because they don't care about "catalog" titles, which is what this will likely end up being.
"That was unnecessarily dramatic". - NY Mets motto (courtesy of InnerTubeHero)
Congratulations to azuarc, the guru of gurus and winner of GotD 2020!
Seanchan posted...
Ninja Theory has never made a true breakout hit.
I was about to challenge this and then I realized that I've been conflating Ninja Theory and Team Ninja, possibly for over a decade.
"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
Seanchan posted...
DmC I've still not played but from what I understand it wasn't loved at launch and has only gotten a reputation over time because it was more underrated than it should have been.

Quite the opposite, amongst critics it was significantly OVERrated at launch! Brad Shoemaker got a TON of shit over at Giant Bomb for giving it a 5/5.

DmC's reputation has improved significantly amongst players because the Definitive Edition is an absurdly better video game than the launch version.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
I love Devil May Cry and even I think fans got soooooo butthurt over DmC on launch it was borderline pathetic. Like yea there's a fair amount that's cringe in it but getting SOOOOOOO upset over that one jab they do with the white hair is too dumb, like actually go outside and touch some grass
You were the cancer, that's all you'll ever be
I really messed up this contest, but azuarc gave it a Breath of fresh air
Yeah amongst a lot of DMC fans I wouldn't say the game was underrated, more like they were acting like it was the end of the world and wanted everyone involved dead.

Which is just a normal Tuesday nowadays in this industry, but was pretty wild at the time.

Personally I like the game well enough when it launched! I couldn't ever touch that version again though, the fucking red and blue color shit, yeesh.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
Most of the hate for DmC from the fanbase came from the director being a racist asshole.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
DmC sucks shit and complaining about it directly led to DMC5 being made. My thanks go out to all my haters.
It's Reyn Time.
DMC5 is a vastly superior game yes but DMC5 is also a near-pinnacle in action games so that's hard to compare
You were the cancer, that's all you'll ever be
I really messed up this contest, but azuarc gave it a Breath of fresh air
I was ambivalent on DmC then when I played it I was so mad that the gameplay was so bad compared to the awesome level design
_foolmo_
he says listen to my story this maybe are last chance
Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.
"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3
kevwaffles posted...
Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.

The director said some dumb shit, but none of that warrants death threats. The statement I made earlier about the reaction was not intended to be hyperbole.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
DmC was good (on PC or the Definitive Edition) although a lot of the key creatives were bad for a variety of reasons. Though lets be honest, they could have been saints and the fanbase still would have lost their minds. The reaction to just that first teaser was pure toxicity.
I just decided to change this sig.
Blaaaaaaargh azuarc
kevwaffles posted...
Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.
They did some cringe shit like I said yea but getting SO fuckin offended at dumb shit like the white hair mirror scene is just too sad lol
You were the cancer, that's all you'll ever be
I really messed up this contest, but azuarc gave it a Breath of fresh air
UshiromiyaEva posted...
none of that warrants death threats
every developer ever has gotten death threats for stupid reasons. it's not worth bringing them up
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
Sorry but I'm not ready to normalize it.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
DmC had the guy in charge say Dante would be thrown out of a bar if he looked like that and then decided to make his self insert the lead, acting like that guy would be the coolest around. then they acted like 30 FPS for the game was acceptable in any way and the combo system was dumbed down to ridiculous levels; all those things were known before the game launched. dude was an ass and the game deserved to flop almost as much as the mobile game does. 4 was better, 5 was amazing, it's rightfully regulated as "look even after the fixes and upgrades it's better than 2 but that ain't saying much."

only exception i'll give is the spanish dub. mexican donte is cool.
"Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
The moment it stops being worth bringing up is the moment the video game industry is lost.
I just decided to change this sig.
Blaaaaaaargh azuarc
The PowerPoint slides or whatever from Ninja Theory on why DmC would be "better" though are fuckin hilarious and sad as well, both sides were being stupid as hell in that whole thing lmao so glad we got DMC5 after that
You were the cancer, that's all you'll ever be
I really messed up this contest, but azuarc gave it a Breath of fresh air
https://www.ign.com/articles/square-enix-bracing-for-layoffs-in-us-and-europe-amid-restructuring

And some say that it loops forever, this road, this road, this road
Let the voice of love take you higher,
With this gathering power, go beyond even time!
Xiahou_Shake posted...
https://www.ign.com/articles/square-enix-bracing-for-layoffs-in-us-and-europe-amid-restructuring

And some say that it loops forever, this road, this road, this road

This is insane.

How long until the industry realizes "line goes up forever" is completely unsustainable?
Phantom Dust.
"I'll just wait for time to prove me right again." - Vlado
Those specific layoffs don't include developers, at least.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
UshiromiyaEva posted...
The director said some dumb shit, but none of that warrants death threats. The statement I made earlier about the reaction was not intended to be hyperbole.

And I'm not being hyperbolic when I say he was trying to capitalize on a very xenophobic "Japanese game devs are inferior" attitude especially prevalent at the time to bring in new fans. So don't ask me to empathize with someone getting lowest common denominator in return for starting there.

Edit: And yeah I know I said "no reason" before. I should have said "no good reason".
"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3
And nobody is asking you to, some brainworms coming up in here damn lol
You were the cancer, that's all you'll ever be
I really messed up this contest, but azuarc gave it a Breath of fresh air
kevwaffles posted...
Some of you have forgotten or missed that Team Ninja picked that fight in the first place. They were outright hostile to DMC for no reason in ways that were baffling once we actually got their finished product.
I sometimes think that the higher ups at Microsoft made this exact mistake when they bought Ninja Theory
http://i.imgur.com/k0v0z3q.gif
WazzupGenius00 posted...
I sometimes think that the higher ups at Microsoft made this exact mistake when they bought Ninja Theory

Huh?

I know we got sidetracked but I meant who I said.

Edit: Omg I am wrong lmfao

Like I wasn't even paying attention to what I wrote and thought you were talking about the post that started this.
"One toot on this whistle will take you to a far away land."
-Toad, SMB3
They already know it's over.

https://twitter.com/NinjaTheory/status/1792601275550302264?t=BH0iWuDss9d94kNcKWa15g&s=19

https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
that's basically what every dev tweets out the day before the game is released
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
Not on a black background like that, they usually make it look nice and happy and take a more celebratory tone. Saying "making video games is hard" the day before your video game comes out is not a sign of confidence in the product
http://i.imgur.com/k0v0z3q.gif
The black background is just the promotional/box art for the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2461850/Senuas_Saga_Hellblade_II/

Just look to the right
KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
WazzupGenius00 posted...
Not on a black background like that, they usually make it look nice and happy and take a more celebratory tone. Saying "making video games is hard" the day before your video game comes out is not a sign of confidence in the product

I don't think the quality of the product matters at all. They are going to be closed down even if this is a GotY contendor.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
Supposedly it's already confirmed they're working on their next game, but yeah I saw that tweet and went "oh they're so cooked"
"You're childish. What are you getting? Are you getting strawberry? Ha! That's such a childish flavor, only children eat strawberry."
https://opencritic.com/game/16475/senuas-saga-hellblade-ii

Slightly worse reviews than the first game overall.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
Getting the impression that it's, for all intents and purposes, basically a visual novel.

No problem with that here! Just gotta wait for the inevitable Playstation port.
https://i.ibb.co/HngtYfT/20240504-020718-imageonline-co-merged-jpg.png
https://youtu.be/qj9p6IFSlnk?si=cZ5L4OPM0TjVjwCD
On Metacritic it is exactly the same score as the original! Ill make a review zone later.

UshiromiyaEva posted...
Getting the impression that it's, for all intents and purposes, basically a visual novel.

No problem with that here! Just gotta wait for the inevitable Playstation port.

I think this is quite evitable. But certainly possible.
I just decided to change this sig.
Blaaaaaaargh azuarc
The only way a PS port doesn't happen is if the team gets disbanded before they can make it, I'd think.
All the stars in the sky are waiting for you.
Board 8 » Microsoft shuts down several studios, including Tango and Arkane Austin.
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